Gisha hosted by Human Rights Film Festival in Tel Aviv Cinematheque: Life in Gaza – 10 years of closure

Wednesday, April 26, 2017: On Saturday, May 6, at 5:00 PM, the Tel Aviv Human Rights Film Festival, Solidarity, will host Gisha for a special evening marking 50 years since the occupation of Gaza, and a decade of Israeli-imposed closure on the Strip.

The evening will begin with a screening of Moti Kirshenbaum’s iconic film from 1970, “Grenade in Gaza,” which depicts the tension of daily life in the Strip in the presence of Israeli military forces. Immediately after the screening, Elizabeth Tsurkov, Gisha’s public advocacy coordinator, will offer an in-depth look at the reality of life in Gaza in 2017. Though Israeli military bases and settlements are no longer stationed inside Gaza, Israel maintains civilian and military control over key aspects of civilian life there, first and foremost through severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods to and from the Strip.

The evening will feature a short film produced by Gisha and directed by award-winning photojournalist Eman Mohammed, in which she interviews Nisreen Misak, a woman who moved from the West Bank to Gaza following her marriage, and was torn apart from her family in the West Bank as a result. The film also shows photographs of other separated families (taken by Eman Mohammed in Gaza, and Alex Levac, Israel Prize winner for photography, in the West Bank). Gaza’s isolation from the West Bank, where Gaza residents have deep social, economic and familial ties, has grown worse over the past decade as a result of severe restrictions Israel imposes on travel between the two parts of the occupied Palestinian territory. Nisreen’s story is one example of the disastrous implications of this policy for the lives of Gaza residents.

Despite repeated public statements by key political and military figures in Israel regarding the need to lift restrictions that are not essential for security, most of the access restrictions imposed on Gaza have remained in place and recently even intensified. This contrasts with Israel’s self-professed interests, which recognize that Gaza’s reconstruction and economic recovery promote security and stability.